Micro-Nikkor 55mm 2.8 Lens: How to zone focus?

[cayenne]

Hi all,
I found an old family lens recently, the Micro Nikkor 55 f/2.8 macro lens.

It was a bit stiff, so I sent it to Midwest Camera Repair and they restored this thing to new, for like $142.

Anyway, it takes great images, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out on the markings how you might go about zone focusing thing things if you were just walking about with it....

On the focus ring, it has a row of markings in meters (m) that are white numbers, and then above that in feet (ft) in a yellowing color and above that, there are some numbers just labeled it appears as PK that are orange....I have no idea what those are.

The aperture ring ha 2.8 through 32.

Here's where it gets a bit interesting.

Apertures 2.9 through 8 are all colored White.
F/11 is Yellow
F/16 is White
F/22 is Blue
F/32 is Orange

so, between the aperture numbers and the focus ring you see some lines that you expect on any other lens, to coordinate with your focus range, like you find the lines for f/16 and with those you can see focus from x feet to infinity.

But this lens is strange. The lines appear color coded...?

There is one central line that is white. , flanked on each side by yellow lines, flanked outside of that by blue lines and on the very outside is orange lines.

So, my best guess is...that you can only zone focus on this thing at F11, F/22 and F/32??

I don't get what the single white line in the middle is for. What is the PK markings for on the focus rings furtherest set of numbers?

I'm putting a link to a site that has images of the lens...hoping someone can give me insight as to how this works or maybe links to instructions for this lens?

Lens images:
https://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/55f28ais.htm

Thank you in advance for any help.

cayenne

 

[ic-racer]

I think this DOF chart is similar to the one for your lens. The markings on the lens are a rough guide. The table has specifics for the larger apertures.

 

[madNbad]

PK extension rings: PK-11A=8mm, PK-12=14mm & PK-13=27.5mm. The PK13 is used for a 1 to1 ratio with the 55 Micro-Nikkor.

 

[cayenne]

PK extension rings: PK-11A=8mm, PK-12=14mm & PK-13=27.5mm. The PK13 is used for a 1 to1 ratio with the 55 Micro-Nikkor.


View attachment 260748

OH thank you!!
Extension tubes!!!

Much appreciated!!
Cayenne

 

[cayenne]

I think this DOF chart is similar to the one for your lens. The markings on the lens are a rough guide. The table has specifics for the larger apertures.

OH thank you..lol, I"ll have to get my good reading glasses out for this.

So, is there no way with the markings on the lens itself to set things, so that you might not have to carry the charts and try to read them while out and about on a stroll?

Again, thanks for this, good info to have and I'll set some to memory, but I gotta think there is some way to do it on the fly with the lens markings?
They just are different than zone focusing lines on all other lenses I've played with....

cayenne

 

[Autonerd]

Hi all,
But this lens is strange. The lines appear color coded...?
There is one central line that is white. , flanked on each side by yellow lines, flanked outside of that by blue lines and on the very outside is orange lines.
So, my best guess is...that you can only zone focus on this thing at F11, F/22 and F/32??

You're pretty much right -- the colored lines correspond to the color of the f/stop. So if you want to zone-focus at f/22, you'd line up your near and far numbers between the blue lines (so, say, infinity and 3 meters).

My only guess is that the DOF is too narrow for the scale at smaller apertures. My Nikkor 50/1.4 only has lines for 16, 11, 8 and 4 (no 5.6).

The white center line is the precise focus point, and useful for smaller apertures as well. No idea what the PK markings are.

HTH
Aaron

 

[samcomet]

This is the Micro Nikkor 55mm f3.5 manual - I would be reasonably sure that quite apart from the DOF chart not going to f2.8 most of your queries could be answered in it. Cheers! P.S. I'll leave it up in DropBox for a week and then delete to save space.....

 

[reddesert]

Hi all,
I found an old family lens recently, the Micro Nikkor 55 f/2.8 macro lens.
...
Apertures 2.9 through 8 are all colored White.
F/11 is Yellow
F/16 is White
F/22 is Blue
F/32 is Orange

so, between the aperture numbers and the focus ring you see some lines that you expect on any other lens, to coordinate with your focus range, like you find the lines for f/16 and with those you can see focus from x feet to infinity.

But this lens is strange. The lines appear color coded...?

There is one central line that is white. , flanked on each side by yellow lines, flanked outside of that by blue lines and on the very outside is orange lines.

So, my best guess is...that you can only zone focus on this thing at F11, F/22 and F/32??

The central white line is where you're focused. The colored lines yellow/white/blue/orange are the DOF markers corresponding to the colored aperture numbers. If you want to know where the DOF for 5.6 is, it's halfway to the f/11 mark.

That part is all like any other Nikon manual focus lens - most of them have these color-coded DOF markings. The extra orange numbers and the PK numbers are the macro reproduction ratios with and without a PK 27.5mm extension tube that allows you to focus to 1:1.

The issue is that the 55mm micro, like most macro lenses, needs to have a really long focus travel. It has to focus from infinity to 1:2 repro ratio in less than a 360 degree turn of the focus ring. That means that the normal, non-macro focusing distances from infinity to say 1-2 meters are crammed into a smaller part of the rotation of the focus ring than on many normal lenses. So the DOF marks wind up being physically closer together.

The DOF of this lens at say f/5.6 is no different than any other 55mm lens at f/5.6, it's just the mechanical difference of the focus travel that makes the DOF markings closer together.